SPOILER ALERT: How DALLAS Will Write Out Larry Hagman's J.R. Ewing

The second half of the upcoming season of DALLAS had to be rewritten after Larry Hagman died in November. TV Guide Magazine reveals just how J.R. Ewing will be written out. [SPOILER ALERT]

At a time when the cast and crew should have been celebrating the revived soap's success on TNT — Season 1 averaged 4.5 million viewers and was the top new cable drama of the year among adults 18-49 — instead they were reeling from the shock of Hagman's death. Then the show's writing staff, headed by exec producer Cynthia Cidre, went into overdrive reworking the second half of the season.

"We all felt having J.R. die of natural causes would have been completely inappropriate, not only to the character, but also to Larry Hagman," says Cidre, who received an OK for the plotline from Duffy as well as Hagman's son, Preston.

The year after Who Shot JR, Dallas had the brunette dead in the pool cliffhanger. It turned out to be Kristin Shepard. I can't remember how they said she ended up there. It will be interesting to see how they go about setting this up. If someone is going to kill J.R. it needs to be epic.

I, personally, would have had J.R. die of natural causes, out or respect for Larry Hagman.

I am reminded, decades ago, on NBC's 'Hill Street Blues,' the actor who played the Assignment Sargeant died of cancer in real life. What did the writers do? They had the character die of a heart attack in bed with someone OTHER than his wife. I found it tacky, to say the very least. The actor deserved more respect than that

But, I know, as always, ratings are most important, so the writers decided to 'murder.' But, by doing so, this will force them to (eventually) write-out the culprit, once he or she is revealed.